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player ready...Ask any band member or musician, and they’ll tell you: touring is grueling. You’re crammed into a van — maybe a bus for the lucky ones — and traveling across the country, staying up late every night and strapped for time during the days.
Given such demands, a home-cooked meal often falls by the wayside, and that’s where Dusek’s comes in. The restaurant located below Thalia Hall recently launched a new program called Sound Bites. Each month, one band coming to play Thalia will collaborate with the Dusek’s kitchen to create a special menu item that reminds them of home.
Each dish will be available only on the evenings of band’s performances, and proceeds raised from sales of the food will go toward a charity of the band’s choice.
December’s edition of Sound Bites features major Chicago flavor: the band is Twin Peaks, the menu item is a deep-dish-inspired pizza puff and the charity is SocialWorks, best known as the nonprofit started by fellow city musician Chance the Rapper.
The pizza puff features hand-pulled mozzarella, calabrese salami, Calabrian chile, oregano and black olive gremolata. Duesk’s executive chef Michael Galen created the puff based on Peaks’ idea, and it will be available with a beer pairing––Moody Tongue’s Thalia Hall Pilsner––for $15 on the night of each of the three sold-out performances Dec. 29-31.
We caught up with Cadien Lake James from Twin Peaks to talk about pizza, Chicago music and why the band chose SocialWorks as its charity to support.
Question: So, how did you decide on doing a pizza dish?
Cadien Lake James: Yeah, we were trying to think of something, and… we were like, ‘f*ck it, let’s make deep dish,’ because you can’t really find deep dish outside of the city. It’s not so much home cooking, but it’s going to be dank. It’s hometown cooking.
Q: Have you found any good deep dish outside Chicago?
CLJ: Not really, but I also just don’t try it. There’s not that much. You know, there’s a Lou Malnati’s in Tucson or something … and we have had Lou’s out there. It’s good because it’s Lou’s. It’s the same sh*t that we have here.
Pizza’s pretty good, man. It’s hard to f*ck up. I really like Detroit-style pizza. I get Jet’s a lot here in Chicago. It’s similar-ish to a pan pizza, so it’s like a little thicker, and the square cut is cool. Pizza in Italy was pretty cool. It had eggs on it. That was tight, you don’t see that very often.
Q: So how did you guys come up with the recipe?
CLJ: Well, they kinda said, we come up with the food, they’re gonna cook it, and we can be as hands-on as we like in the kitchen, or not at all. It raises money for charity, so that’s a big reason why we did it. Anytime we can do something for charities in Chicago, we’re into that.
I just think it’s kinda funny to make Dusek’s make pizza, ‘cause they’re like a Michelin-rated, five-star joint. I’m sure they’re going to take some liberties. I’m hoping it will have a really sick crust. That’s the most important part of the pizza to me. Do you eat the crust, or do you not eat the crust? [The crust is] why I like Lou Malnati’s. That’s why I like Jet’s. Some places it’s just like this chewy, dry nonsense.
I sound like a pizza Nazi right now. I’ll eat any pizza at the end of the day. (laughs)
Q: Tell me about why you guys chose SocialWorks.
CLJ: Social Works is Chance’s non-for-profit. They’re really cool because, given what’s going down on the South Side — Rahm closing all these schools, the most segregated city in America, all this gang violence — people wonder why, so they focus on giving back to the communities through the arts. They do a lot of things focusing on helping kids use their voices through the arts and become community leaders and cultivating community talent.
Coming out of Chicago Public Schools, we all take that very seriously. You know those kids love pizza, everybody loves pizza, so come out and eat some pizza.
Q: You guys are playing the bill with several other Chicago musicians (Knox Fortune, Sun Cop, Dehd, Post Animal, NE-HI, Today’s Hits). Did you know all those guys before the shows?
CLJ: Yeah, we know everybody playing the shows. It’s all people in the community. I played a really small part on one of the songs [on Knox Fortune’s new album]. Our keyboardist Colin played on a couple of the songs… [Fortune’s] project is really cool. I call it kind of Beck-style.
Q: It’s been about five years now since you guys really established yourselves. What’s it like these days coming back and playing in Chicago?
CLJ: I mean, dude, I’m so grateful to have come as far as we have, and it’s been five intense years, touring really hard. We’re not a radio band, or a band that gets a lot of commercial love or anything like that, but we’ve got a little cult thing going on and get a lot of support. It’s very cool, man, I still feel like a regular-ass dude. Thankfully we’re not too famous, so we can still live a normal life.
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It’s like, going to the bars and shows, people recognize you. It’s far out, it’s humbling, it can be a little intense, but it’s good. We have really awesome fans.
Q: OK, so what is the band’s go-to pizza order?
CLJ: The band’s favorite toppings are sausage and onion. I’m a pepperoni and spinach guy myself.
Q: You guys are definitely from Chicago, ordering sausage.
CLJ: Yeah, I think the Lou (the banner pizza at Lou Malnati’s) has the sausage, tomatoes and onions. It’s a pretty classic Chicago thing.
Q-and-As are edited for length and clarity.
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